Success of a fast food restaurant depends on whether the restaurant operator can efficiently manage the food inventory and the processing thereof. Ideally, at any moment during the operation of a restaurant, the inventory levels of all food items in the restaurant at various stages of production (e.g., unprocessed, processed, uncooked, and cooked) should be known for efficient management of the food inventory. In most restaurants, however, the food inventory is typically checked or updated periodically. Excessive inventory checks can be labor intensive and costly. In contrast, too few inventory checks may disrupt the preparation and service of food to customers, because the updated inventory levels may not reflect the actual amounts of food available to be served.
Particularly applicable to fast food restaurants is the criterion that a customer should be served with food as soon as his order is taken. Ideally, if the rate at which a restaurant cooks a food product and the rate at which the food product is sold are equal, the restaurant will have fresh food on hand and ready to serve. In other words, for the ideal fast food restaurant operation, the operator must know how many food products will be sold in the future. Although historical sales data for a food product can be used to predict future rates of sale, the prediction is highly approximate and subject to numerous unpredictable events and variables that the historical data do not reflect. As a result, a restaurant operator must precook a certain number of food products and have the cooked products on hand for immediate service.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have a system for managing the food inventory of a restaurant during various stages of food production, which may include storage of uncooked food, preparation and processing of uncooked food, cooking of the food, storing the cooked food, relocating the cooked food to various locations in the restaurant, and serving the cooked food to customers.